Britons confess to bombings on Saudi TV

Three Britons face prison in Saudi Arabia after they appeared yesterday on national television in Riyadh apparently confessing to a series of bombings.

Les Walker, Jamie Patrick Lee, and James Cottle claimed that they were responsible for three attacks that had injured three people since December last year.

The confessions referred to three explosions.

The first, in al-Khobar on December 15, injured a British man when a drinks container exploded in his car. A second outside a Euromarche shop in Riyadh on January 10 caused damage but no casualties. The third, outside a bookshop in Riyadh, injured a Briton and an Egyptian on March 15.

These attacks followed a car bomb last November which killed Briton Christopher Rodway, 47, and injured his wife.

In February this year a Scot, Alexander "Sandy" Mitchell, also made a confession, along with a Canadian and a Belgian, to having planted the bomb that killed Mr Rodway. He too appeared on television and gave details of the operation.

Mr Mitchell, an anaesthetics technician, is thought to have been behind a number of drinking clubs open to the large expatriate community, but he is reported to have sold his share of the business before the attack on Mr Rodway. During his confession Mr Walker said the attack he carried out was connected to Mr Mitchell.

A former associate of Mr Mitchell told the Guardian last night that at least two of the men were associates of Mr Mitchell's and were involved in the alcohol trade.

Mr Lee, a prosthetics technician known as "Jimmy the Leg", was formerly employed at the Royal King Fahd military hospital. Mr Cottle's occupation is unclear but he is thought to have been employed by a Saudi national.

The associate said that Mr Cottle had been involved in an illegal bar called the Empire Club, which was run by Gary Dixon, a Briton in custody in Saudi Arabia after being extradited from Dubai last year. Mr Cottle is thought to have been a shareholder in a club, Celtic Corner, set up by Mr Mitchell.

"The one connecting factor between these people is that they were all 'early doors' drinking partners," said the associate. He added that he thought it unlikely that Mr Mitchell was responsible for anything as violent or sophisticated as a car bombing.

Looking composed but far from comfortable, the three men made detailed confessions, describing the attacks using street maps and photographs of buildings provided by the authorities.

Like Mr Mitchell, the trio said they had received orders but did not say from whom, and did not give a motive.

"In November, I and James Cottle were recruited to carry out bombings in the Riyadh area and in the coastal area.

"In December, I and James Cottle received orders to carry out a bombing in the al-Khobar area."

Mr Walker said that he was asked by the other two to help in one bombing. He said they told him to"create some disturbance and confuse police, and they wanted to do this for Sandy [Alexander Mitchell] and his colleagues. Like a fool, I agreed."

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We would hope that they [the suspects] are given access to legal representation before their case comes to trial. We will take a very close interest."

Six other Britons arrested during the alcohol crackdown have been given one to four years in jail for alcohol offences.

They were arrested along with Mr Mitchell and eight other Britons, as part of an investigation into bootlegging, before they agreed to make the confessions. Mr Cottle was arrested in June, Mr Lee in April, and Mr Walker in February.

The Saudi authorities maintain that the bombings were expatriates in a turf war over the alcohol trade, and cited yesterday's confessions as further proof. Groups opposed to the regime claim the Britons are being framed to mask internal dissent.

Saeed Al-Fagih, head of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, claimed that the confessions were part of a pattern of concealment by the regime.

"These people are involved in alcohol, not the bombings. The bombings are being carried out by groups opposed to the strong western military presence in Saudi Arabia.

"The authorities make these men confess to give the impression the country is stable, and that all the trouble comes from external forces. This is not the case."

Amnesty International criticised the use of televised confessions. "Guilt or innocence is a matter for the courts, not TV studios. The Saudi authorities should be concentrating on allowing all detainees access to lawyers, not putting them in front of state television cameras," said a spokeswoman.

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